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29 Apr 2014

On The Pull 30/04/2014

New comics are due to hit the shelves on Wednesday so here’s a look ahead at some of the books we’ll be picking up this week. To see what’s available at Paradox this week, click here.

Stewart R: And like that ladies and gentlemen, the Amazing Spider-Man is returned to us, and he's wholly Peter Parker again! I really did enjoy the Superior Spider-Man series; Dan Slott gave us an emotional end to Peter Parker's life and actually made us care about how Otto Octavius then treated his new clothes as he went about playing his own brand of heroics as Spider-Man and living a different day-to-day life in the shoes of Peter. That this Wednesday's release of Amazing Spider-Man #1 lines up with the cinematic release of Amazing Spider-Man 2 in US theatres this Friday (and you can read my spoiler-free review here should you wish!) is of course no coincidence and Marvel have been known to match the beat of their publishing schedule with the calendar of big screen releases to maximise exposure, but the slight twist in the gut is that just two weeks after shelling out $5.99 to see how Superior Spider-Man reached its climax in #31, we're now being asked to hand over the same amount for Amazing Spider-Man's debut. That's quite a hefty punch to the wallet and while I know that there's a good chance that this debut will see Slott and Ramos firing on all cylinders from a creative standpoint, the fact that the front cover even seems
to indicate that Inhuman #1 - a book I already paid $3.99 for a month or so ago - is included within the page count as a 'bonus book' tells me that I, along with many readers out there, could feel a
little aggrieved and robbed upon turning the final page this week. It's not only Marvel that are going for the bigger price this week as DC have one of their many annuals lined up for a $4.99 spend in the shape of Justin Jordan's Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #2. GL:NG's is one of only two DC titles that I'm still following with monthly interest and as such I'm loathe to let extra story work slip past for fear of missing something important to the over-arching plot. To be fair Jordan's writing has proven to be of decent quality since DC signalled all change for their Lantern titles and the development of Kyle and Carol's relationship is making for interesting reading.

Matt C: I'm kind of tempted by Amazing Spider-Man #1 this week because I do feel that I missed out on Superior Spider-Man and should have perhaps taken a chance on it. I left the wallcrawler's adventures behind a couple of years back but before that he was a regular fixture on my pull-list for at least a decade or so. What's putting me off? That $5.99 price-tag. I realise Marvel are doing this kind of thing more often (easing us into a company-wide price hike??) but it's not exactly the best way to ensnare new (or lapsed) readers. I may wait to see what the reaction is before making my final decision but I'm more swayed towards not buying at the moment (and that cover isn't helping - not one of Humberto Ramos' best!). Far more up my street, and absolutely guaranteed to be top of my pile, is Southern Bastards #1 from Image. I've been waiting for another creator-owned series from Jason Aaron ever since his crime series par excellence Scalped concluded. This is another crime series from him (with Jason Latour illustrating) and it's described as 'Dukes Of Hazzard meets the Coen Brothers' which sounds like it'll be clear winner to me!

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Who are the PCG?

The Paradox Comics Group are a collective of comic book connoisseurs who all frequent the esteemed retail establishment Paradox in Poole, England. Their tastes in the sequential art medium are wide and varied but they all possess an eternal fascination at the prospect of spandex-clad muscle men punching each other in the face.